A former barman has been indicted on a charge of threatening to murder House of Representatives speaker John Boehner, by either poisoning his drink at a country club or by shooting him, according to court documents.
A grand jury indictment filed in US District Court in Ohio on January 7th, 2015 identified the accused as Michael R Hoyt.
As Speaker of the House, Mr Boehner is second in line for the presidency in the event of a vacancy.
A separate criminal complaint said Mr Hoyt was fired last autumn from his job at a country club in Ohio, where he served drinks to Mr Boehner, who is a member.
The complaint says Mr Hoyt told a police officer that before leaving the country club he “did not have time to put something in John Boehner’s drink”.
The complaint alleges that Mr Hoyt also told officers that no one checked the drinks he poured for Mr Boehner, and it would have been easy to slip something in his drink.
‘Current and ongoing threat’
Mr Hoyt is being held under a court order for mental evaluation and treatment. US Capitol police and the FBI believe he “poses a current and ongoing credible threat” to Mr Boehner.
The court documents said: “Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and that he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola.”
According to the criminal complaint, Mr Hoyt had said he had a loaded Beretta .380 automatic pistol and that he was going to shoot Mr Boehner. Mr Hoyt then volunteered to be taken to a psychiatric hospital, and police took his weapon.
The complaint says Mr Hoyt was treated for a previous psychotic episode about two years ago. He was prescribed medication “which he voluntarily stopped taking” about six months ago.
PA